Cancer is a significant health problem throughout the world. Although advances have been made in detection and therapy of cancer, no vaccine or other universally successful method for prevention and/or treatment is currently available.
Current therapies, which are generally based on a combination of chemotherapy or surgery and radiation, continue to prove inadequate in many patients.
Located in the upper abdomen in the retroperitoneum, the pancreas is associated intimately with many major structures including the portal vein, stomach, duodenum, common bile duct and the superior mesenteric artery.
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. It is more common among men, and men between the ages of 60 and 70 are most at risk. As the tumor grows, the patient's symptoms result from tumor infiltration of surrounding structure causing pain, nausea, vomiting, weight loss and jaundice. The latter condition presents symptoms in no more than one half of the patients.
Once tumor infiltration occurs other structures such as the portal vein become affected and this precludes curative resectioning of the pancreas.
Effective treatment of pancreas cancer is delayed frequently for several months. This delay has profound implications, since metastatic spread to the liver or lymph nodes has been observed at a time of diagnosis in 60% of patients, and this factor diminishes the prospect for long-term survival. Also, the carcinoma of the pancreas is asymptomatic in its early stage. The most common symptoms at later stage are weight loss, abdominal pain, and jaundice. Weight loss, the causes of which are not fully understood, usually is significant. Jaundice occurs if the cancer blocks the common bile duct. By the time the malignant tumor is identified, it often has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body. The median survival is little more than six months from the time of diagnosis.
Current therapies for this common and difficult-to-treat disease include surgery and/or chemotherapy. Often the tumor cannot be removed by surgery, either because it has invaded vital structures that cannot be removed or because it has spread to distant sites.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved treating primary and metastatic pancreatic cancers.